Each year at my Artist’s Open House in Brighton I create an installation in my shed/studio…themes over the years have included Shipwrecks, Pioneer’s Cabin, Nesting, Frozen in Time and the White Shed.

Earlier this year when I was working on the #myStJames project I visited Floris in Jermyn St, London; the oldest perfumers in the country, and I was absolutely fascinated with how a perfumer almost seems to paint with scent. ( you can read an earlier post about it here )

It made me become incredibly preoccupied with scents and memories which is why I decided I wanted to crete a space where people could almost smell their past and to ‘dress’ the shed with a feeling of nostalgia and personal history; something smell and scent gives immediate access to.When I told Floris what I was going to do they kindly provided me with lots of scent samples which I was then able to subtly place within drawers, boxes, tins, jars and even a couple of handbags and a book; sometimes on their own and sometimes combined with other elements…I was also so chuffed when Susan Beech from A Petal Unfolds agreed to let me include some of her incredible paper flowers and Cable and Cotton gave me extra lights for the ceiling.

Also as a synaesthetic artist I often paint smell ( and taste ) and so also included within the installation some paintings which depict scent. When I was little my mum put a scented sheet of purple paper into a drawer in the spare room…I used to go in on a rainy day just to open it and take in that smell.
I can still recall it; not in a very tangible way, but more like recalling a dream; one of those you never forget…

As an abstract painter I enjoy emotional responses rather than representative, and was completely taken by surprise when I found myself weeping at the scent of ‘Iris’ having emotionally revisited one of the happiest times and places of my life 30 years ago, for a matter of seconds.( the handbag above contains ‘ Madonna of the Almonds’ by Floris as well as a dusting of talc, the small top box contains ‘ 1962’ scent by Floris and the glass jar contains ‘Lily of the Valley’ by Floris )

( the binoculars case below contains Scent ‘No. 127’ by Floris, blended in the 1800’s. It’s one of my favourites because it is like directly smelling history )( drawer above contains ‘Palm Springs’ scent by Floris )( drawer above contains ‘Cerifo’ scent by Floris )( drawer above contains ‘Edwardian Bouquet’ scent by Floris )( drawer above contains ‘Honey Oud’ scent by Floris )( bag above contains ‘Mahon Leather’ scent by Floris )( above is some of my mother’s old cream from the 1970’s and a box with pencil shavings inside )( drawer above contains ‘1988’ scent by Floris )( lilies and a painting of their scent behind )There are 75 smells in the shed which you can experience in boxes, jars and drawers ( anything containing a smell has a little round sticker on unless it’s a plant ).

You can pick and choose and let the smells take you back to places you’d forgotten or never even thought about.
The identity of the smell itself shouldn’t be important; it’s where it takes you in your memory which should be savoured.

So far people have had some incredible responses and everyone has come out telling me stories of smells from their childhood or past…some of my favorites so far have been:

I’ve also included some smells which are not so nice…not many, but I wanted people to experience a range, so if you visit, beware of this tin…it contains asafoetida!!There’s nothing quite like opening a drawer or a box which not only has some interesting bits and pieces inside but which also has a specific scent…I have absolutely loved putting this installation together and I think it is only the start of a new phase for me of working artistically with smell!You can visit the Open House and experience The Scented Shed, in Brighton during the last 3 weekends of November 11am – 5pm, and you can follow the accounts @64sandgate on Instagram and Facebook for more details

They are now ready to order and will be ready to ship at the end of October…

I decided it was time for a re-design, which I was really nervous about, but I needed to change things partly because the postage on my old long ones was always expensive because of their size, and also because I wanted the images to be square, and well, I basically need to shake things up a bit!

Each month comes with a sort of contemplative and seasonal creative triggers, for example May encourages you to ‘Smell flowers until the scent disappears…’ , July to‘Water the plants and listen to the sound it makes’ and November to ‘Enjoy wearing a scarf and sitting still with a hot drink…’. I wanted to connect art, nature and the senses throughout the year.

Also the actual calendar format has changed so that now there are squares instead of skinny lines, and there’s space at the bottom for spillover reminders, although at the back there are sections for notes and lists.

I have also been able to make them a bit cheaper than before, and until the end of October there is a 10% discount on all orders ( to be shipped at the end of October ) with checkout code: 5FTINFAUTUMNALORDER

For about a week or so every October, just before the frosts, wind and rain, my Virginia Creeper literally makes my garden glow, and the late flowering nasturtiums are such a welcome compliment of colour…I love how each flower has its own personality, and I always get more new colours with every year.

The first frost and one windy day will demolish all this vibrancy and I will then have to brace myself for Winter…hopefully there will be a few weeks before that.

Amongst other things, I had an old artichoke, a couple of fading figs and some pink snowberries…Having eaten my boiled egg breakfast, I felt I needed more inspiration and realised that I hadn’t had a proper contemplative look around the garden for a while…so I did!Autumn is taking hold at the moment not only with colour but also with it’s natural mess; the drying out, the fading, the scattering, the seeding…and just it’s general sense of slowing down and knitted textures…

Today started off with the beauty of borlotti beans, which then moved on to greenhouse textures, conkers and crispy leaves on a bike ride…it’s always the things I don’t expect which inspire me so these are some photos of the thought process of today’s composition!See the version of this post with a moving still on Steller here